Új polgárok – régi értékek. A piarista szerzetestanárok rekrutációja és mobilitása, 1876–1930
New middle class – old values (The recruitment and mobility of Piarist monastic teachers)

Summary/Abstract: The paper examines the reconstruction and mobility of the members of the Piarist Order, trying to find out how the Order was able to become a decisive factor in 19–20th century Hungarian secondary school education and thus in (small)town public life so quickly and so durably. A survey of those joining the Order between 1876 and 1930, and the full membership of the order in 1930 yields the following result. On the one hand, it is clear that the Piarist Order was extremely, even beyond the degree usual in clerical institutions, open towards the lower layers of society, such as peasants and the lower middle classes. Long range developments indicated a gradual increase of peasants at the expanse of the lower middle classes, especially artisans. What makes it particularly interesting is that according to mobility routes so far defined, children of peasants were only in exceptional cases able to join middle class professional/social groups, the classic way for them leading through the lower middle classes, just in the process of being pushed to the background. Thanks to this openness, more than 80% of the Piarists, operating the elite secondary schools of the time came from lower social groups, below the middle classes. The atmosphere created by the openness caused by high mobility and the high prestige of the Order together were probably the main factors behind the fertile adaptability of the Order to the rapidly changing conditions of Hungarian society, and this is probably what resulted in its leading position in education.

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